After my last post, which got a bit philosophical about the relative merits of competition in music I thought I’d lighten things up a bit. I love movies about making music, about musicians, and movies that have fantastic musical soundtracks that are integral to the film itself. Here are a few of my favorites and I highly recommend all of them. Some are well known and easy to find, some less so, but all are worth your time and effort. In no particular order…..

Some comedies first.

“Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” This is a take-off on the Johnny Cash biopic but so much more. Sometimes crude and a bit juvenile, John C. Reilly is wonderful as a rise/fall/rise country star. The puns and inside jokes come a mile a minute, with riffs on country music of course but also Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Brian Wilson, punk rock and more. You’ll laugh your ass off, I promise.

“A Mighty Wind” A lesser known gem from director Christopher Guest, and like all his comedies it does not mock his subject but laughs at and with it gently. Folk music is the theme with riffs on all the greats of the 50s and 60s, including the great Eugene Levy as a Dylan-like character. I particularly enjoyed the details, including period correct instruments.

“O Brother, Where Art Thou?” Not a movie about music – it’s a comedy based on Homer’s The Odyssey (!) set in the Depression era South, but the music is absolutely sublime. And it’s really, really funny. I’ll bet I’ve watched it ten times.

“This is Spinal Tap” Directed by Rob Reiner, this “mockumentary” made me literally fall out of my chair laughing the first time I saw it and I still watch it when it happens to come on. About a dimwitted but loveable fictional heavy metal band, it has become part of the music culture with many quotable lines.

A few documentaries:

“Standing in the Shadows of Motown” I positively love this movie and own a copy of it. It is the story of the legendary Funk Brothers, the anonymous studio musicians at Motown who created the soundtrack of our lives if you’re a Baby Boomer like me. Fabulous players all, their story is told with interviews of the surviving members (a few of who have died since the movie was made), and interspersed with footage from a concert that was held with them plus some younger singers doing classic Motown hits. Check out Joan Osborne singing “What Becomes of the Broken Hearted” and “Heatwave” – the pure joy she and the Funk Brothers exhibit will bring a tear to your eye. And the amazing Chaka Khan singing “What’s Going On” is an absolute masterpiece. I can’t recommend this one enough if (like me) you love classic Motown. And along with the great music, you will shake your head in amazement at the details – and wonder why the Funk Brothers never received the accolades they deserved.

“Good Ol’ Freda” This is a small movie but fascinating. It is recollections of Freda Kelly, who was the first president of the Beatles fan club in Liverpool and went on to become their office manager and secretary at Apple Records. She was also something of a mother to all of them and if you’re a Beatles nut like me you’ll find her stories wonderful.

“Searching for Sugarman” This small movie became a cult classic. It is the story of a minor league Mexican-American singer songwriter named Sixto Rodriguez who made two albums in the 1970s that quickly faded into oblivion. Except in one place: South Africa at the height or apartheid. There, his albums were known and loved by every young person. A film maker found out about this and in spite of the rumor that Sixto had died in a terrible accident, made it his business to see if Sixto was still alive, and what had become of him. After a long search he was found living a modest life in the U.S., totally unaware that he was a legend in South Africa. The film maker takes him to South Africa thirty years after his records were released and the pandemonium and adoration that followed are heartwarming. The movie won a number of independent film awards, and rightly so.

“The Other One” This is a film about Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir. If you’re a Dead Head you should see it. Lots of interesting stories and some great music.

“20 Feet from Stardom” The story of the fantastic but unheralded women who backed up bands like the Rolling Stones. It is a story of bias, perseverance, and pure musical talent that only now is being recognized.

“Living in the Material World” A quite long and detailed doc about the “quiet Beatle” George Harrison. It’s taken a while, but George has finally come to be recognized as an equal to the “other” songwriters in the group. George’s deep religious beliefs and sincerity come through, along with some fantastic singing and playing. You’ll learn of the deep respect many other musicians, both old and much younger have for this departed genius.

“Miss Sharon Jones” A modern soul powerhouse, also sadly gone, she almost single-handedly with her band the Daptones revived the interest in and performance of classic (but new) soul music.

“Gimme Shelter” Of all the movies about the Rolling Stones, this one captures the pure rock and roll core and mystique of the band. Filmed before, during and after the tragic and seminal Altamont Rock Festival, I truly believe that decades and generations from now when people want to know what pure rock music was all about, this will be one of their references.

“Bob Dylan – Don’t Look Back” Another period piece that defines (as much as that’s possible) what Dylan meant and his influence in his early years. There are quite a few other docs about him focusing on his various stages of withdrawal and reemergence in the music scene but this one sets the stage for the legend.

“Beware of Mr. Baker” In the history of rock music there have been few characters as gifted, complex and sometimes despicable as drummer Ginger Baker. He never accepted the term “rock drummer” and was quite disdainful of anyone who insisted on labelling him as one; he always viewed himself as a jazz drummer. But there is no question that his drumming in the rock idiom was some of the most powerful and revolutionary ever made.

“The Last Waltz” Some call this the greatest concert film ever made and who am I to disagree? Interestingly, except for Robbie Robertson who was the one who insisted on the breakup of The Band, the other players in this greatest of all “Americana” bands hated the movie. But the performances by guests from Joni Mitchell to Eric Clapton to Neal Diamond (???? Wha?????) are great. My favorite is the blues powerhouse Muddy Waters, whose performance of his classic Mannish Boy is so powerful the other musicians on stage (including Clapton) are almost blown into background scenery. This is another one that I can’t resist watching again and again.

Feature films:

There are so many of these that I can’t come close to listing them all but here are a few of my favorites.

“A Hard Day’s Night” and “Help” Nothing more can be said about these two classics that feature dozens of the Beatles best songs. Both are little dated and hokey but especially “Hard Day’s Night” captures what Beatlemania was all about. It was filmed on only about 60 days on a budget of only $150,000 in 1964. This was because the record executives were convinced that the Beatles phenomenon would quickly fade away and they wanted to cash in while they could! “Help” is pretty silly and very dated but the music? Oh, the music. There never will be anything that comes close.

“Crazy Heart” Jeff Bridges plays a down in his luck former country star and he absolutely nails what it is to be on the road playing small bars and the price of fame. I love this movie so much. Not easy to find but see it if you can. And marvel at the great music and playing, and the fact that Bridges sang all the songs of his character.

“Love & Mercy” This recent fictional accounting of the life of genius Brian Wilson may or may not be totally accurate but the acting is superb and the music is wonderful. Apparently Brian didn’t hate it, so it must be OK!

And there are so many more movies related to music I could mention. “Verlon Thompson: Sweet Dreams Do Come True”; “The Wrecking Crew”; “That Thing You Do”; “Almost Famous”; “Buena Vista Social Club”; Ken Burns “Country Music” series; “Echo in the Canyon”; “Muscle Shoals”; “Inside Llewyn Davis”….. Get inspired to pick up your guitar. Start watching!

Yet another interesting thread going on one of the guitar forums, this one regarding the reality and relative merits of music viewed as competition. The person who started the thread cited a story about Bach being challenged to some sort of musical contest and when his competitor heard Bach rehearsing his piece opted to slink out of town, knowing he could never compete with the master. People had lots of opinions on the thread about just what is competition between musicians. Is it purely a function of ability or “chops?” When musicians are judged by their peers or the general public is it even possible to say who’s the best, whatever that means?

On another thread in that same forum someone posed the question: Who is the greatest living acoustic guitarist? And of course there are many replies.

Competition is part of our genetic makeup. The caveman who could bring down an animal before some other caveman was going to eat that night. And then somewhere along the line people realized that on some level competition (hopefully, not the life and death kind) could actually be…..fun. Taken to its modern extreme, that’s where we are today in just about any human activity you can name. Talent judging reality shows are hugely popular on television. So it’s just fine to judge musicians against each other and attach labels like “best” to some of them. Or is it?

Back when I started playing the guitar and began listening to and seeing many experienced players I certainly was one of those who would compare players and confidently conclude that he or she was better than someone else doing the same thing. The certainty of youth was to blame of course, plus the need to be viewed as having some higher sense of knowledge and taste. As the years passed I became more and more certain of my opinions and on some level I was passing judgement based on many facets of the competitive urge I thought I saw in those players – and in myself. Without being able to verbalize or even recognize it I just assumed that one thing that made a player great was his or her need to be better than their peers. Boy, was I wrong about that.

What started to change my mind about the relative merits of competing with other musicians became something more personal. Slowly but surely I began to realize that I never was going to be as accomplished as some of my heroes. That may sound logical and a little bit naïve but anyone who’s serious about playing a musical instrument has to get to that place if they are going to progress. In any case, it’s a bitter pill to swallow for anyone and I’ve known some very experienced guitarists who outright quit playing when that realization took hold. It saddens me to think about players I’ve known who could have taken their playing in whatever direction they wanted but took the easy way out with vague excuses like, nah, I don’t play anymore, it just doesn’t turn me on like it used to.

Most of us don’t quit though and that brings me back to the competition thing. Every year there are dozens of big guitar, fiddle and banjo contests around the country. Back when I played and toured with fiddler Marie Rhines we took part in quite a few, most of which Marie won. At the time I thought it was pretty cool. Players who win the big contests at places like the National Championship contests in Winfield, Kansas and Weiser, Idaho are venerated by fellow players. This is all well and good and there is no question that these players are world-class, in a league that few of us will ever enter. The danger I think comes from believing that those winners have some God-given super powers, and that if I practice my ass off perhaps He will grant me those powers too. And how will I test those powers? By comparing myself to and competing with my fellow musicians, of course!

That competition takes many forms for the passionate but misguided guitar player. Sometimes you can see it when a guitarist fires out his fanciest licks when he knows there is another guitarist listening. A player who speaks arrogantly to other players, or orders them around in a group setting is just trying to win some competition that the others may not even know they are in! A guitarist who is playing with others for the first time and has no patience with lesser players and will never stop to explain what he is playing or why he played it at that moment in time. To his way of thinking, if he did take the time those other players might become his equal and that is definitely not what he wants. He wants to win.

You could say these are basic ego issues, and you’d be right. Insecurity plays in the equation too. If you boil those two problems down, how does a misguided player deal with the situation? By viewing everything he plays as a competition.

But here’s the kicker. Without exception, every truly great guitarist I’ve ever met, people like the jazz legend Pat Martino and blues guitar master Duke Robillard are the nicest, most modest and sincere people you’d ever want to meet. From everything I’ve seen online, my hero the British jazzer Martin Taylor is the same way. A good friend of mine who plays mandolin related a wonderful story to me recently about having a long and stimulating conversation with mandolin great David Grisman. All these players have entered the realm of knowing they are not competing with ANYONE. On the other hand, in my experience, the most insufferable guitarists I’ve met were ones who were pretty good, even excellent, but were obviously threatened by any other guitarist they may come into contact with. That threat did not exist but that didn’t stop them from acting like it did. After all these years of playing I can pretty much pick those guys out instantly and I avoid them whenever possible.

I’m not naïve enough to think anything is going to change in the world of competitive guitar playing. I just don’t choose to be part of that world. The only competition I allow myself is competition WITH myself, and even that gets tiresome after a while.

The player who allows himself to fail once in a while and doesn’t let it bother him too much has a much better chance at success than one who assumes a listener (whether that listener is a guitarist or not) takes some sort of pleasure or gets satisfaction in witnessing those small failures.

I guess this is a long-winded way of saying I put very little stock in guitar competition in any way and on any level. To me anyway, it’s just not important. And really, it doesn’t prove very much.

A hot topic on the guitar forums from time to time is the validity of a guitar “opening up” after some amount of playing time. This is the idea that a brand-new guitar needs to vibrate for a while to reveal its voice. I fall in the camp that believes this is true, although you can find plenty of players who put no faith in it whatsoever, i.e., what you hear is what you get.

I’ve experienced this opening-up with lots of guitars and right now I’m finding that my relatively new Martin M-36 is starting to come into its own. Sustain, depth of sound, resonance, clarity and the oh so Martin overtones are developing nicely. Plus, I’ve always loved the comfortable size of this model, once known as the 0000 series. So for the last few weeks my equally wonderful Martin Custom Shop D-35 Seth Avett model has been a little lonely but I’ll be picking that one up again before long. It’s just too nice to neglect.

Opening up is a phenomenon that occurs with premium guitars, which are all solid wood and less so in inexpensive instruments that have laminate backs and sides. The variables that encourage the opening up are complex but pretty easy to understand. A brand-new guitar has never vibrated much so things like glue and finish haven’t loosened up (for lack of better description) to their maximum. So sometimes it’s difficult to get a clear idea what a guitar will sound like when auditioning it at a music store. But there is a trick to that; more below.

This is why some true vintage guitars cost many thousands of dollars. After 60, 70, 80 or more years of playing a premium guitar reaches its maximum potential sound-wise. That, combined with the natural aging of the wood, which is often of a grade that is no longer available makes the magic that acoustic guitarists dream about. When trying to explain the panache of vintage guitars to students who have done some research in preparation of buying a premium instrument I often use the wine analogy. The subtle but very real attributes of a legendary variety combined with age are very important and worth the money to the true wine lover. Can the average person taste the difference between a 1960s vintage Chateau Lafite Rothschild and a $10 bottle of some California cabernet? Probably, to some degree anyway. But is that Chateau Lafite worth 100 times more? Only the wine enthusiast can decide.

Is a fully opened-up 1937 Martin Herringbone D-28 worth a hundred times more than a stock D-28 made this year? If your pockets are very deep and you are obsessed with sound, maybe. There aren’t a whole lot of those folks out there so I can’t comment on that. I do know after playing a few pre-war Martin D-28’s and D-18’s there is certainly something very special about some (but not all!) of them. I confess that if I ever won Power Ball I’d be making some trips around the country to try a few more out!

So what can you expect from a premium guitar that’s brand new and when – and how much – can you expect it to open up? A really good guitar will sound really good right from the get-go. For quite a while some makers like Dana Bourgeois have been speeding up the opening-up process by “baking” the wood used for the tops of guitars and at least in the case of Dana’s instruments the results are quite extraordinary. Known as “torrification,” the process slowly dries out the wood and what you get it is the sound of a guitar that is quite old and broken-in. I’ve played a few other guitars with tops that have been “baked” and the results were less dramatic than with Dana’s. I briefly owned both a Martin and an Eastman that had torrified tops and neither sounded very good, brittle and almost raspy to my ear. Many years ago one of the manufacturers made a big thing of advertising their guitars were subjected to some weeks or months of sitting on stands in a big room with music blasting at them from big speakers. They claimed to be a great way to open up a guitar using musical sound waves. I have no idea about the validity of this claim and that process has faded into the archives of guitar history.

I believe that playing a guitar often and for long periods of time when it’s brand new is best way to hasten the opening up process. But here are some variables that will affect how long that process takes.

Humidity, or lack of humidity affects the sound of both new and older guitars (another source of debate on the guitar forums but I stand by my opinion of that!). If a guitar lives in a very humid climate it is difficult if not impossible to get an accurate idea of how good it really can sound. That’s simply because the wood absorbs the humidity and cannot vibrate to its full potential. If you live in such a place, try using a room dehumidifier to give the guitar a chance to dry out. You’ll like what you hear.

If you do as I suggest and play a new guitar often and for long sessions it makes sense to invest in a quite a few sets of guitar strings and change the strings fairly frequently. This will give a more accurate result compared to using old, dead, lifeless strings. One side note here, though. Some people LIKE the sound of old strings, especially Gibson owners who feel the “woody” sound of guitars like the classic J-45 when strummed is heavenly with broken in strings and exactly what guitars are supposed to sound like. I don’t happen to agree, I love the sound of fresh strings and I change my strings often. You’ll have to decide what type of sound you prefer but I think we can all agree that really old, grungy strings do nothing for the sound of a premium guitar.

Some people opt for a device called Tone Rite that is secured to the top a guitar for a few days or longer. It vibrates with a low hum and this is thought to loosen up the glue and finish resulting in a more “open” sound. I had one a while ago and used it on a brand-new Martin OM-28. I left it running for about four days and yes, there was a subtle difference in the tone but nothing particularly remarkable. Some people claim astounding results however. If you do decide to try one of these things, be sure to either suspend your guitar while it’s being used or at least leave it on a guitar stand with as few contact points as possible to encourage maximum vibration. Leaving your guitar in its case while using a Tone Rite will not yield very much if any difference in sound as the case absorbs most of the vibration.

Last week I had another wonderful visit with internationally renowned luthier Steve Connor, who lives only a few miles from me. It’s always an amazing treat to spend time with Steve and see his latest breathtakingly gorgeous creations (he makes primarily classical guitars) and talk guitar geek stuff with him. I brought my D-35 over for him to see and he was very complimentary of its sound and construction. At one point he began tapping on the bridge and said, yeah, that’s about a G. I asked what he meant and he went on to explain the process of “tap tuning,” which string instrument makers have used for centuries to predict what an instrument will sound like before it is completed. All wood vibrates at a certain frequency and knowing that certain frequencies will be more apt to be bass or treble focused lets the builder modify things like braces to accentuate or diminish those tendencies. And checking with Steve’s Peterson tuner app, he was dead-on. I love the sound of that guitar and the next time I’m in a guitar shop I will definitely use this tap method to judge how a brand-new guitar will sound when it opens up!

So, how long will opening up take? Sorry but there is no absolute answer to that. In my extensive experience with new Martins I can say that it may be anywhere from a couple months to a year, taking into account the variables above.

But, sad to say, I may have given up on some guitars too soon. I can’t help but wonder if a few of those Martins I sold because I didn’t care for the sound now are the Voices of the Angels!